Cross “Avatar” with “The Borrowers” and you have the erroneously titled “Epic,” an idea-starved tale feverishly vying to conceal its shortcomings behind an awesome display of 3-D animation. Drawing inspiration from a children’s novel by Michael Joyce, a horde of five writers, including Joyce, have assembled a collection of cartoon fantasy clichés, complete with dead mothers, absent-minded professors and a strong, obstinate heroine whose power is often usurped by her macho cohorts.

The goal is to save a magical forest from the Boggans, a loathsome collection of evildoers bent on decaying every living thing they can get their grubby little hands on. And by “little,” I mean tiny, as in almost microscopic. They are, of course, representative of every greedy corporation guilty of raping the Earth of its flora and fauna. Take that, GOP! It’s a leftist message that would be admirable if the script – and Chris Wedge’s heavy-handed direction – didn’t t continually assault you with pro-environmental sermons delivered by the war-mongering subjects of a hierarchy ruled by a green queen (gratingly voiced by a miscast Beyonce) with nothing better to do than parade around in a floating chariot seeking adoration.

At least her minions, called the Leafmen, don’t rely on fossil fuels. They fly on the backs of birds (Now, in what James Cameron movie have I seen this before?) and sport costumes that look like the Jolly Green Giant’s hand-me-downs from when he was no bigger than his peas. The leader of the Leafmen is Ronin, a rugged, blockheaded type with a brogue that makes him sound a lot like Colin Farrell. As if having the queen’s back and fending off Boggans wasn’t enough, Ronin also plays foster parent to his hapless teen protégé named Nod, whose moniker was no doubt inspired by his tendency to make audiences nod off. He’s voiced with the charisma of an insurance salesman by Josh Hutcherson, who is basically playing a miniature version of his Peeta from “The Hunger Games.” Only this time, his amorous eyes aren’t trained on Katniss. They’re affixed to the Katniss wannabe Mary Katherine (Amanda Seyfried), or “MK” as she likes to be called.

She’s the human heroine of the piece, and like Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz.” (I told you this movie rips off just about every fairytale.) Through the magic of movie making, MK is almost immediately swept off to an enchanted land under siege by the powers of evil. But unlike Dorothy, or Alice (another obvious influence), MK is shrunken to Leafman size during the process. All she needs now is to find the story’s equivalent of the ruby slippers to get back to her goofy, recently widowed scientist father, Bomba (Jason Sudeikis), who coincidently just happens to have made it his life’s work to find these tiny forest creatures – a venture that’s made him a laughingstock in the eyes of everyone from his colleagues to his daughter.

Page 2 of 2 - Movies just don’t get more derivative than this one, which – true to its green theme – fervently believes in recycling. Its only salvation is the dazzling 3-D animation, which at times looks almost lifelike. It’s a thing of beauty, too, with the animators creating a lush, forest environment that is every bit as impressive as the one in “Avatar.” But like that over-praised hit, “Epic” gets bogged down by expository dialogue and leaden action scenes that Wedge (“Ice Age”) renders as anything but fresh. Add to that an underwhelming collection of voice talent that includes an awful Steven Tyler as a wizened caterpillar, Chris O’Dowd and Aziz Ansari as the requisite slapstick sidekicks, and a wasted Christoph Waltz as the leader of the Baggons, and you have a flick that can’t come close to matching its presumptuous title.